Before my dish was installed at my new house, I used my DVR and watched the things that I had saved on it. I didn't have to hook it up to anything but the tv. When you turn it on, the screen will come up saying it is trying to locate the sats. Ignore it, and press the dvr button twice. That will take you to your list of saved shows and you are good to go.
This was done before the latest software updates, but I find it hard to believe this would have changed.